Burma has reported what is believed to be its first case of H5N1 bird flu. The virus was detected after more than 100 chickens died near Mandalay earlier this month, according to Than Tun, director of animal health. But there is no evidence of human infection, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). At least 97 people have died from bird flu since the disease's resurgence in 2003, two-thirds of them in Indonesia and Vietnam. The disease has killed or forced the slaughter of more than 140 million chickens and ducks across Asia since 2003, and has recently spread to Europe and Africa. Burma's first case reportedly emerged on 8 March, when large numbers of chickens began dying in Mandalay's Aung Myae Thar Zan township. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk

The Taleban says it has killed four foreigners kidnapped at the weekend in southern Afghanistan. A spokesman for the group, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, said the bodies of three Albanians and a German had been dumped "between Helmand and Kandahar". The authorities have not confirmed the claim. A spokesman for the company which employed the four foreigners says they were all Albanian Muslims. Four Afghans seized at gunpoint along with the foreigners have been freed. There have been several incidents in recent months involving the kidnapping of foreigners in Afghanistan. Some have been killed, including a Briton found dead last September, an Indian killed in November and a Nepalese man who died last month. In other cases, other foreigners have been freed, reportedly after ransom money was paid...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4802052.stm

Radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has appealed for calm among Iraqi Shias following bomb attacks in Baghdad which killed about 50 people on Sunday. Mr Sadr said Iraq was now in a state of civil war, but he said he would order his Mehdi army militia not to respond. The bombings destroyed street markets in the slum district of Sadr City which is a stronghold of Sadr supporters. He said US-led forces were responsible for letting the attacks happen but the government should maintain security. "Sunnis and Shias are not responsible for such acts, national unity is required," Mr Sadr told reporters at his headquarters in Najaf. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4801316.stm

Police found four hanged men dangling from electricity pylons in a Baghdad Shiite slum Monday, hours after car bombs and mortars shells ripped through teeming market streets, killing at least 58 people and wounding more than 200. The grim scene underscored fears that Sunday's bloody assault on a stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr would plunge Iraq into another frenzy of sectarian killing. Bomb blasts in Baghdad and north of the capital — many of them targeting Iraqi police patrols — killed at least 11 more people Monday and wounded more than 40. They included a U.S. soldier killed in a roadside bombing in east Baghdad, the military said. A U.S. Marine was reported killed the previous day in the western insurgent-plagued province of Anbar. The deaths brought the number of U.S. military members killed to at least 2,308 since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. ...http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-03-12-iraq_x.htm?csp=34

Ethnic and religious fighting, land disputes and communal conflicts have driven more than three million Nigerians from their homes since the return to democracy in 1999, an official report showed on Monday. The National Commission for Refugees said the problem of internal displacement in Africa's most populous nation was worsening and now appeared to be a permanent feature of society. "The magnitude, scope, character and dimension of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria is frightening," the commission said in a presentation to a National Assembly public hearing, aimed at improving the response to the problem. "From Yobe in the far north to Calabar on the fringe of the Atlantic, the IDP situation appears to increase from day to day," it added. The commission, a state body, said the government was not paying sufficient attention to IDPs...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1718629

The Bush administration intends to curtail contacts with President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction if it joins a Palestinian government led by the Islamic militant group Hamas, Western diplomatic sources said on Monday. The warning came as Fatah officials held another round of inconclusive coalition talks in Gaza with Hamas, which defeated the long-dominant Fatah movement in January elections.Fatah has so far said it has no intention of joining the new government unless Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, changes its political program. Hamas plans to present a new "position paper" to Fatah before negotiations resume on Tuesday, officials said.Diplomatic sources said strict U.S. restrictions on contacts and assistance to Hamas would apply to Fatah and other parties if they joined a government under the militant group....http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060313/ts_nm/mideast_usa_dc